Harold Pinter's No Man's Land
Broadway, 2013-2014
Outer Critics Circle Nomination
Outstanding Actor in a Play
Ian
McKellen - No Man's Land
Reviews
"For viewers who don't necessarily have the time and funds for both plays during this busy show-going season, start with the Pinter." - Steven Suskin, Huffington Post
"One should go for the witty language play, the verbal power struggles, and two acting titans scrambling for the upper hand in a game whose rules are never fully explained." - Thom Geier, Entertainment Weekly
"This is the Pinter of malevolent non sequiturs and the silken menace of unstated violence." - Linda Winer, Newsday
"They bring out the beguiling polish and shimmer of Pinter... some of the best dialog ever written. This staging makes the clearest case I know for Land as Pinter's appropriation and devastation of the classic drawing-room comedy. And I will forever cherish the memory of Mr. McKellen's nimble Spooner and Mr. Stewart's increasingly paralytic Hirst doing their best to one-up each other, in authoritatively delivered nonsense." - Ben Brantley, The New York Times
"Existential misery is surveyed with a sly wit that can pierce the funny bone as much as the soul. This Land captures the mesmerizing, inextricable brutality and humor of Pinter's dialogue." - Elysa Gardner, USA Today
"McKellen's silent slow-burn response speaks volumes. He's got one of the most expressive faces, voices and command of body language on the planet. Stewart gets Hirst's imperiousness and vulnerability just right." - Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News
"McKellen is a wonder. Stewart is marvelous." - Mark Kennedy, Associated Press
"Savage and funny, terse and hauntingly poetic." - David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime theatrical event not to be missed." - Zachary Stewart, Theatermania
"This is all quite hilarious, going well beyond the old British trope of mistaken identity into the realm of existential terror." - Jesse Green, Vulture (New York Magazine)
"The delight here is in moments as base as watching Stewart gradually descend into stumbling drunkenness — Captain Picard? Wasted?!" - Robert Kahn, NBC
"In this production, Stewart and McKellen play the roles they seem born to play." - Marilyn Stasio, Variety
"McKellen and Stewart give new life to Pinter's meditation on death." - David Cote, Time Out New York